1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pager for receiving a message included in a transmitted paging signal directed to the pager and to a method of receiving a message with controllable alarming.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A pager for receiving a message included in a transmitted paging signal directed to the pager is known. When such a prior art pager detects an address signal directed thereto in the wireless reception signal, the pager informs the user of reception by sounding an alarming sound or making vibrations, analyzes the message signal following the address signal, and displays the message.
The prior wireless pager includes a memory for storing its address and compares its address read from the memory with the address signal included in the wireless reception signal to detect the reception signal directed to itself.
In the wireless paging system, a service for providing a plurality of addresses to one wireless pager is provided. In this case, the user of the wireless pager can know the sender by checking the address used.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a prior art pager.
This prior art pager comprises a receiving circuit 21 for receiving a wireless signal transmitted from a base station of the wireless paging system by an antenna 21a and demodulating it to output a digital signal, and a decoder 22 for effecting a bit synchronizing and an error correction to the reception signal converted into the digital signal and comparing the address in the reception signal with its own address written in a memory 23. The pager further comprises a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 24 including an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) and a RAM 24a for temporary storing the message data included in the reception signal outputted from the decoder 22. The pager further includes a display buffer 25 for temporally storing a display signal generated from the message data, and a display driver 26 for driving a display 27 on the basis of the display signal stored in the display buffer 25, the display 27 for displaying an image corresponding to the display signal by a liquid crystal element. The pager further comprises a speaker driving circuit 29 for sounding a speaker 30 to generate an alarm sound, a vibrator driving circuit 31 for operating the vibrator 32, and a switch circuit 28 for generating commands or various data corresponding to the operations of the user, wherein the signal from the switch circuit 28 is inputted to the CPU 24 through the decoder 22.
Next, an operation of the prior art pager will be described. The receiving circuit 21 receives the wireless paging signal transmitted from the base station (not shown) of the wireless paging system by the antenna 21a and converts it into the digital signal through amplifying, frequency-converting, detecting, and demodulating and supplies the digital signal to the decoder 22.
The decoder 22 effects the bit synchronizing processing and the error correction processing to the digital signal from the receiving portion 21, and then, it confirms that the reception signal is directed to itself by comparing its own address read from the memory portion 23 via the CPU 24 with the address included in the reception signal. If the reception signal is directed thereto, and it includes message data, the decoder 22 obtains the message data and supplies the message data to the CPU 24 and outputs a drive signal to the speaker driving circuit 29 or the vibrator driving circuit 31. The speaker driving circuit 29 generates the alarm sound in response to the input of the driving signal. If the alarm operation by the vibrator 32 is set, the decoder 22 supplies the drive signal only to the vibrator driving circuit 31.
The CPU 24 stores the message data from the decoder 22 in the RAM 24a and converts the message data into display data and supplies it to the display buffer 25. The display driver 26 displays the message on the display 27.
As mentioned, the prior art pager receives the wireless paging signal transmitted from the base station and effects the alarming operation by the speaker 30 or the vibrator 31 and displays the message on the display 27.
The aim of the present invention is to provide an improved pager and an improved method of receiving messages,
According to the present invention there is provided a first pager (message recieving appartus) which includes: a receiving circuit for receiving a transmitted paging signal including a message and address data; a message receiving circuit responsive to the receiving circuit, having an address memory for storing a plurality of sets of assigned address data and a message memory, for receiving and storing the message from the receiving circuit in the message memory when the address data in the recieving paging signal agrees with any of the plurality of sets of assigned address data. The pager further includes a message informing circuit responsive to a command signal for reading the message from the message memory and informing an operator of the read message; a counting circuit for counting the number of times of receiving a message when the address data in the recieving paging signal agrees with one of the plurality of sets of assigned address data; a comparing circuit responsive to the counting circuit for comparing the number of times with a reference; and an alarming circuit for effecting an alarming operation on the basis of the result of the comparing circuit.
In the first pager, the alarming circuit effects the alarming operation when the number of times is equal to or higher than the reference.
The first pager may further include a time signal generation circuit for generating a time signal indicative of the present time and a timing detection circuit for detecting that the present time agrees with a predetermined time, wherein the alarming circuit effects the alarming operation on the basis of the result of the comparing circuit and the result of the timing detection circuit.
According to the present invention there is provided a second pager (message recieving appartus) which includes: a receiving circuit for receiving a transmitted paging signal including a message and address data, the message including a control code indicative of a kind of the message; and a message receiving circuit responsive to the receiving circuit, having address memory for storing assigned address data and message memory, for receiving and storing the message from the receiving circuit in the message memory when the address data in the paging signal agrees with the assigned address data. The second pager further includes a control code detection circuit for detecting the control code from the message from the received message; a message informing circuit responsive to a command signal for reading the message from the message memory and informing an operator of the read message; a counting circuit responsive to the message receiving circuit for counting the number of times of receiving the message which includes the detected control code agreeing with a predetermined control code; a comparing circuit responsive to the counting circuit for comparing the number of times with a reference; and an alarming circuit for effecting an alarming operation on the basis of the result of the comparing circuit.
In the second pager, the alarming circuit effects the alarming operation when the number of times is equal to or higher than the reference. In this case, the second pager may further include a time signal generation circuit for generating a time signal indicative of the present time and a timing detection circuit for detecting that the present time agrees with a predetermined time, wherein the alarming circuit effects the alarming operation on the basis of the result of the comparing circuit and the result of the timing detection circuit.
According to the present invention there is also provided a first method of receiving a message from a transmitted paging signal, which includes the steps of: (a) providing an address memory for storing a plurality of sets of assigned address data and a message memory; (b) receiving a transmitted paging signal including a message and address data of the message; (c) receiving and storing the message from the received paging signal in the message memory when the address data in the recieved paging signal agrees with any of the plurality sets of assigned address data in response to the step (b); (d) reading the message from the message memory and informing an operator of the read message in response to a command signal; (e) counting the number of times of receiving the message when the address data of the message agrees with one of the plurality of sets of assigned address data; (f) comparing the number of times with a reference in response to the step (e); and (g) effecting an alarming operation on the basis of the result in step (f).
In the first method, the alarming operation is effected when the number of times is equal to or higher than the reference.
The first method may further include the steps of: (h) generating a time signal indicative of the present time; and (i) detecting that the present time agrees with a predetermined time, wherein the alarming operation is effected on the basis of the result of the step (f) and the result of step (i).
According to the present invention there is further provided a second method of receiving a message from a transmitted signal, which includes the steps of: (a) providing an address memory for storing assigned address data and a message memory; (b) receiving a transmitted paging signal including a message and address data of the message, the message including a control code indicative of a kind of the message; (c) receiving and storing the message from the received paging signal in the message memory when the address data of the message agrees with the assigned address data in response to the step (b); (d) detecting the control code from the message; (e) reading the message from the message memory and informing an operator of the read message in response to a command signal; (f) counting the number of times of receiving the message which includes the detected control code agreeing with a predetermined control code; (g) comparing the number of times with a reference in response to the step (f); and (h) effecting an alarming operation on the basis of the result in step (g).
In the second method, the alarming operation is effected when the number of times is equal to or higher than the reference.
The second method may further include the steps of: (i) generating a time signal indicative of the present time; and (j) detecting that the present time agrees with a predetermined time, wherein the alarming operation is effected on the basis of the result of the step (g) and the result of the step (j).